Rather than trying to keep the reviews sorted by
Record companies, I've decide to keep this page relevant by reviewing
CDs as they arrive with me, and trying to keep the contents of this page
down to a dozen reviews, with older ones archived off to separate pages.
That way you'll always get the new reviews first, but still be able to
see the older reviews. I've also decided to include track listings for
each CD as well. So here we go:

Now this is my sort of CD ! A mixture of Rhythm & Blues and
Soul, so yeah, I suppose the title of Rhythm & Soul does fit
perfectly. But of course this is Kent, so it’s also a mixture of
known, unknown, and previously unreleased tracks ! And, they are
all Texas recordings as well so have that certain edge that
recordings from the Lone Star State always do for me. Just buy
it !

There You Are / A Love Of Your Own / I Can't Say Goodbye / From
Her Arms To Mine / If Loving You Is Wrong I Don't Want To Be
Right / Solitary Love Affair / Special Occasion / It Hurts So
Good / Good To The Very Last Drop / I'll Be Rolling (With The
Punches) / I'm Tired Of Hiding / I'm Through Trying To Prove My
Love To You / How Do You Feel The Morning After / Angel In Your
Arms / I Just Can't Stand It / It's Gonna Take Some Time This
Time / Loving Arms / Making The Best Of A Bad Situation / I
Still Love You (You Still Love Me) / A Child Of God (It's Hard
To Believe)

You couldn’t ask for more of a contrast really between this CD
and the previous one, and both are equally good. Millie Jackson
is known for her, shall we say, somewhat pithy attitude towards
love, relationships, and men, and that’s exactly what you get
here. A mixture of love songs, accusations, despair, and joy,
all wrapped in in a soulful voice that demands your attention.
Sean Hampsey, as the compiler, has pulled a winner out of the
bag by trawling through all twenty plus albums that Millie
Jackson recorded at Spring, and pulled out some really superb
examples that in all probability, unless you own all the albums,
you’d never have heard. The CD stands alone as a great tribute
to how soulful Millie Jackson really was.

‘New Breed Blues with Black Popcorn’. I’m sure Ady is just
making these titles up for a laugh, because this CD is quite
simply R & B of varying tempos. There are some absolute stormers
here as well though, and as Ady has stated the gems of the
collection are possibly the previously released items. On a
personal basis I’m really pleased to see The Idols ‘Just A
Little Bit More’ get a CD release because I’ve had a great time
spinning that in my DJ set to great dance floor reaction.

Various Artists - Something New To Do - The Phillip Mitchell
Songbook
- CDKEND394

Archie Bell And The Drells -
Archie's In Love / Ben E King &
Average White Band - A Star In
The Ghetto (Single Edit) / Bobby Sheen -
Something New To Do / Bobby Womack
- Something For My Head / Bobo Mr.
Soul - Hitch Hike To Heartbreak
Road / Candi Staton - Here I Am
Again / Corey Blake - How Can I
Go On Without You / Dorothy Moore -
The Only Time You Ever Say You Love Me
(Is When We're Making Love) / Erma Coffee -
You Made Me What I Am / Ernie Shelby
- Carry Me / Garland Green -
(You Gotta) Come Through Me / J J
Williams - Gonna Have A Murder
On Your Hands / Joe Simon - It
Be's That Way Sometimes (Single Edit) / John Edwards -
Cold Hearted Woman / Johnnie Taylor
- Starting All Over Again / Katie Love
And The Four Shades Of Black -
It Hurts So Good / Mary Wells -
If You Can't Give Her Love Give Her Up / Mel & Tim -
Free For All (Winner Takes All) /
Millie Jackson - Leftovers
(Single Edit) / Phillip Mitchell -
Little Things Aka It's Those Little
Things That Count / Ray Barretto -
What Part Of Heaven Do You Come From /
Sidney Joe Qualls - I Don't Do This (To Every Girl I Meet) / The Staple Singers (Sung By
Mavis Staples) - Trippin' On
Your Love / Tommie Lee - That's
The Way I Wanna Live My Life

Classic songs from the pen of a man who was no shabby singer
himself. I’m just going to recommend that you look at the
tracklisting, and then try and think of reasons why you
shouldn’t buy this CD. There won’t be many I’ll tell you. As a
nice touch, (Or perhaps it’s just an example of the way his mind
works) Tony Rounce, the compiler has not gone for the obvious
tracks, ie ‘Free For All’ is on the CD, but not sung by Phillip
Mitchell, but rather then version by Mel & Tim, and there are
several other examples of hwere Tony has picked a less obvious
version of a song. All credit to him though, it exposes more
music, to more people. Great compilation of Soul music !

I suppose if you had the choice of which company you would like
to have access to the Motown vaults to carry out a reissue
program, in all likelihood you would say Ace / Kent. Well, this
is the first Various Artists CD from them, but actually it is
the tenth Motown release that the lable have put out. I digress,
this particular CD is made up of half released tracks, although
they are almost all on the more obscure side rather than the
Motown top 100 rereleases, and half previously unreleased
recordings. This, of course, is where Ace excel, the depth of
the research, the quality of the recordings, all top notch, even
to the point where there are tracks by two Motown artists who
never actually got a release at all, and have never had a
release on a CD before. Step forward Thelma Brown and Anita Knorl, for this is your moment of fame. I really
hope that someone is able to find these two ladies and give them
a copy of this CD, because that would be truly wonderful !

Raw Soul music, bordering on Blues, and it’s great. The depth
and feeling that Johnny Copeland manages to get into every note
just blows me away. This is a compilation of everything he
released (I think) between the years 1965 and 1972, across a
multitude of labels. Of course as it’s a Kent release, there are
demo versions of songs, previously unreleased songs, and a
stupendous booklet accompanying the CD. Need I say more ?

Hung Up, Strung Out / Heartbreaker Of The Year / Trapped By A
Thing Called Love / Keep It Coming / Now Run And Tell That / The
Deeper I Go (The Better It Gets) / Man Sized Job / I'm Over You
/ Making A Good Thing Better / What It Takes To Get A Good Woman
(That's What It's Gonna Take To Keep Her) / Do Me Right / Your
Man And Your Best Friend / What Am I Doing Wrong / Don't Nobody
Live Here (By The Name Of Fool) / Good Goody Getter / Get Up Off
My Mind / The Best Thing I Ever Had / Trying To Forget / We've
Got Love (The Good Part About It) / My Brand On You / Any Time
Is The Right Time / Here I Am Again / Married, But Not To Each
Other / Who's The Fool / Radio Ad "Trapped By A Thing Called
Love" Album / Radio Ad "On The Loose" album

Denise Lasalle was from Chicago, and recorded these
songs for a Detroit label, mostly in Memphis and Muscle Shoals.
So what style did she end up with ? Southern Soul of course ! Of
the twelve singles recorded for Westbound, nine of them hit the
R & B charts, and for these six years at least Denise Lasalle
was a superstar. Sadly this style of song fell out of favour by
the middle of the Seventies, and Disco overtook everything.
Fortunately, the legacy lives on, and Southern Soul will always
have a following.

Kent Records has a reputation of being a ‘Northern Soul’ label, but
that is so far from the truth it’s actually laughable. Over the
years Kent have released Soul music of every nuance and
persuasion, but probably as many ballads, and Deep Soul, as
uptempo dancers. Here is another prime example: although the
King, Federal, and Hollywood labels have been mined for the
nuggets of black gold that are uptempo dancers, this CD
concentrates on the deeper, achingly Soulful sides that often
were hidden away on flip sides. And how good can it get ! Superb
stuff for listening to late at night.

So I’ve just said Kent isn’t just a ‘Northern Soul’ label, and then
this comes along ! It’s a celebration of thirty years of the
Kent label. What an achievement ! Thirty years of reissuing some
of the best music on the planet, and in a lot of cases making it
available for the first time. So what about this particular CD ?
Yes, most of these tracks have been issued before, but that
doesn’t stop them being the highlights of the lable of=ver the
years. It’s just fabulous. Go out and buy it now if you haven’t
already !

(I Wanna Hear It) From You / Be Sure You Know / Change Your Ways /
Don't Take My Love / Dynamite Lovin' / Everything But Love /
Haste Makes Waste / Honey Dear / I Dig His Style / I Had A Talk
With My Man / It's Going All The Way / I've Got The Skill / Jerk
And Twine / Misty / My Square / New Lover / Selfish One / Stick
To One / Summertime / Take Me For A Little While / Trust In Me /
Wasting Time / We Can Do It / You Really Know How To Hurt A Girl

You think you know an artist sometimes, but it takes a CD like
this to show that you don’t really know their work at all. With
the exception of the unreleased titles, all these singles are
relatively cheap, so over the years I have probably had a fair
few in my collection, but it’s only when you hear the tracks all
together you realise how good Jackie Ross actually is. Uptempo,
midtempo, and Deep, the girl can sing them all, with style and
Soul. Another must add to the collection.

I find it a little sad that the track ‘My Dreams Don’t Ever Come
True’ is by an unknown female singer. She probably only ever had
one shot at fame (yes the pun was deliberate!), and having
recorded her track, would have been crushed to realise that the
record company wasn’t going to release it. Well, at last she,
whoever she is, has her moment in the sun, along with the other
unknown male singers. There are of course lots of other
previously unreleased recordings made at the Fame studios on
show here, but these are at least by artists who did get
releases. All in all, Southern Soul at it’s finest, and it only
goes to show the quality of the things that did get released if
you consider that these tracks weren’t considered good enough.

Woman (Shake Your Booty) / A Love Vibration / Only A Fool / Little
Bit Of Love / Groove Me / Jump Into Love / You Can Leave Your
Hat On / I've Been A Fool / Blinded By Love / Ain't No Pity In
The Naked City / You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' / Down So Low /
All The Way Down / God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind) /
Power Play / Come A Little Closer / Feeling Uneasy / St. Louis
Blues / Let's Burn Down The Cornfield / Lovin' Arms

Etta’s last album for the Chess label, and to be honest, not my
favourite by any means. More of a Jazz Rock flavour than
anything else, and it doesn’t always work for me. A couple of
tracks are spot on though, and by far and away for me, the best
is ‘Ain’t No Love In The Naked City’ which I of course know from
Bobby Bland’s version.

When Ady got access to the RCA vaults a whole raft of previously
unreleased recordings became available, and boy where they good
or what! He’s now, through what can only be described as a
stroke of unbelievably good luck gained access to the masters
from the Pied Piper production team. Many were placed with RCA,
quite a few with Kapp, and a whole slew of smaller Detroit
labels. But by the same token, many were unreleased, or these
are the earlier takes of songs that did get released later. Put
simply, it’s awesome to hear such quality Soul music in perfect
sound quality, whether you’ve heard it before or not, you’ll
never tire of hearing them again.

Dan Penn – The Fame Recordings – Ace CDCHD 1353

(Take Me) Just As I Am / Come Into My Heart / Come On Over / Do
Something (Even If It's Wrong) / Don't Lose Your Good Thing /
Everytime / Far From The Maddening Crowd / Feed The Flame / I Do
/ I Need A Lot Of Loving / I'm Living Good / It Tears Me Up /
Keep On / Talking / long Ago / Power Of Love / Rainbow Road /
Slippin' Around With You / Strangest Feeling / Take A Good Look
/ The Puppet Aka I'm Your Puppet / The Thin Line / Unfair /
Uptight Good Woman / You Left The Water Running

In the space of two years Dan Penn wrote all these songs.
Although he only had four tracks released by Fame, nearly all
these songs went on to be recorded by other artists and became
absolute classics in the field of Southern Soul. Now, for the
first time, you get the chance to hear how Dan Penn sang them.
Some are almost identical to the versions that got released by
other artists, yet others are distinctly different, and perhaps
this is how Dan wanted them to be performed. Have a listen and
make your own mind up.